Do we like Jimmy Choo?
Our score: 7 out of 10. No harmful words or acts found and real work for students, but the public record is thin and our fetches were limited.
Jimmy Choo is the shoemaker whose name is on the famous label, and he credits his London training at Cordwainers for his career. He co-founded the Jimmy Choo brand with Tamara Mellon, then sold his stake in 2001 as ties between them soured. After that he went back to his own exclusive couture line, with an agreement that the brand keeps the ready-to-wear side.
The one real stoush is over credit. In 2013 Mellon told TODAY that Choo never designed a single shoe for the company, calling him a cobbler and saying she never got a sketch from him. When TODAY asked him for comment, he declined to speak. Nobody has tested her claim in a court, so call it her version of events.
On the harm check, we found nothing. No remarks about LGBTQ+ people, women, migrants or the planet from him, no campaigning, no dodgy company. Worth knowing the brand now belongs to other people, so the label's marketing isn't his words. The record on him personally is thin, and we couldn't open every page we wanted.
Nothing new on him lately that we could verify, and the big headlines you'll see under his name are mostly about the brand, not the bloke. Most of what's current is campaigns and fashion shows run by the company he left in 2001.
The good stuff is the teaching. In 2021 he launched JCA London Fashion Academy in Mayfair, aiming to give students design skills and a business head as well. He has since opened a second academy in Hounslow and says he wants to give the opportunity to all.
He has also said he wants to give back to students, and the academy and his work as a Cordwainers ambassador back that up. Fees at the Mayfair school are steep, so it isn't charity, but it's real effort for the next generation of makers.